The Pacific

[Worf101]

Well Tom "Saving Private Ryan" Hanks and Steven "Band of Brothers" Speilberg are at it again. This time turning their nostalgic eye towards the US Marines and their Island hopping campaign of WWII. I don't know but after watching the first hour I'm left kinda flat. I'm a military historian and a vet, I usually find programs like this fascinating but not today. Perhaps it'll grow on me but as of right now I don't know. How many mud and blood soaked "Banzai" attacks do you have to sit though? The character development here is even skimpier than it was in Band of Brothers, but in that program by the end you knew and loved most of the main characters. This may happen with "The Pacific" but I don't know if I want to spend another 9 hours of my life waiting to find out?

Sound and production values are first rate. The budgets bigger and better than Band of Brothers but that doesn't guarentee a better experience. As of now, I give it a "C".

Worf

[dean_martin]

moved mighty slow without saying much, imo, but the still-to-come previews shown after the episode suggests things will pick up. I hope so. The plodding pace is a little surprising because, as you pointed out, the back stories, particularly the civilian life scenes, seemed to offer very little info.

There's quite a bit of local interest in this series because Sledge is from the area. He authored one of the books on which the series is based. His character is the one with the heart murmur. I have to watch long enough to see how he gets in.

[thekid]

Worf

I am with you so far on this one. With BOB you got some character development while they were training in Ga. and in England. Here it went from enlisting to being in the jungle of Guadacanal. Once there they hinted at things but did not give you much. The action on the ridge and at the creek echoed back to actual events but lacked detail and context. I think that may be in part because they did not have a single source like Ambrose provided with BOB. The battle for Guadacanal had several phases and maybe they made some choices based on time limitations. I still have high hopes for this series but we will just have to wait and see a few more episodes before making a final call. It is still too early to tell but I think the actors in BOB were better and were able to carry off the down time scenes pretty well.

[Troy]

Recently dropped HBO in a cost cutting move. Frustrated to be missing this . . . even if you guys are soft on it.

I recall similar reactions to BoB's first episode too . . . and that ended up being (IMO) the best WWII film ever made.

[eisforelectronic]

I got to see the first episode a couple weeks ago in the events tent on the rear deck of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor. It was a nice experience. The 3 main actors were there briefly as well as some Veterans and various execs and military types. I enjoyed it, but think the story will pick up a bit in the coming episodes.

[Worf101]

This show is finally begininng to hit it's stride. I really enjoyed this weeks episode wherein' you follow the 1st Marines as they RnR in Melbourne Australia. You see what happens when thousands of Combat Veterans invade a sleepy little Australian backwater town. Truly enjoyed Private Leckler's back story and you learn about him and others in the unit. Good stuff this. Wish they'd used a format that wasn't so reminiscent of Band of Brothers though. I wish they'd struck out on their own a little more.

Worf